Architect Ian Traill lists historic bolthole at foot of Adelaide hills

Architect Ian Traill is selling his historic six-bedroom South Australian bolthole in the foothills of the Adelaide Hills.

With views over Adelaide city, the fully renovated Woodley House has 16 rooms within its stone walls and has been extensively renovated during the past few years.

Architect Ian Traill, who is redesigning the five-level mansion once owned by former prime minister Bob Hawke and second wife Blanche d’Alpuget in Sydney’s Northbridge, is selling his historic six-bedroom South Australian bolthole in the foothills of the Adelaide Hills. Traill is expecting more than $4.5m for the 2A Playford Street, Glen Osmond property on a half-hectare. With views over Adelaide city, the fully renovated Woodley House has 16 rooms within its 18-inch (45cm) thick stone walls and has been extensively renovated during the past few years. The house was purchased by Traill and wife Fiona as a deceased estate in 2017, and renovations include replanning the kitchen and pantry, adding three ensuites and two powder rooms, new plumbing, rewiring and the conversion of the roof attic space into two bedrooms and ensuites. The Traills are relocating to Sydney to manage Ian Traill Architects Sydney projects. Development approvals for a 15m lap pool, as well as a pool cabana and garden suite plus an expansion of the conservatory, have been approved by the local council. The selling agent of the 1843-built house, which also features a chateau-style entertaining area with fire pit, is Jamie Brown of Booth & Booth Real Estate.

On the block

The belongings of Sydney’s the Angus family, including Ian Angus, former managing director of National Cash Register Corp, have hit the market through Lawsons Auctioneers. The Holdsworth Street, Woollahra terrace sold for about $4.6m through Alison Coopes in August. Now Lawsons’ Shauna Farren-Price is looking to auction more than 400 items on Sunday, October 11. On offer is a swag of furniture, jewellery and clothing as well as a German cash register that is expected to fetch up to $800, a Versace Medusa head glass bottle stopper and a Louis Vuitton glass paperweight. The last two are expected to fetch up to $200 each. Farren-Price says the contents, including Sergio Rossi shoes, Yves St Laurent scarfs and Loewe handbags, will be on display from 10am Sunday with the online auction to conclude that evening. Angus had a long career with NCR, taking on management roles in Japan, Germany, Hong Kong and Dayton, Ohio.

Harvey Norman expansion

Fresh from announcing a 30 per cent increase in whitegoods sales, retail tycoon Gerry Harvey is embarking on a new round of store openings and property developments in Brisbane, Sydney and the NSW north coast. The Harvey Norman chairman says trying to buy a site for a major retail development in a capital city is difficult because of excessive land prices. “Due to the cost it is impossible, you will lose a lot of money to do a development, it is crazy,” he says, adding that retail land prices are not dropping because of the pandemic. A Harvey Norman store recently opened in Sydney’s Hornsby at a Westfield shopping centre. “It is very unusual for us to open in a Westfield, but trying to get a site in Hornsby is impossible,” Harvey says. In Brisbane he is developing a $140m store in the southern suburb of Macgregor on a site he bought a few years ago. On his personal real estate development front, he says he has slowed down but is doing a large project in the Port Stephens suburb of Salamander Bay. It includes a new Harvey Norman store and industrial and retail stores.